Saturday, June 14, 2008

"D" As In Digital ... Drums.?

Went back to see if one of my favorite music venues was serving beer again.. and it was.

The Bluerunners from Lafayette, La were pounding out Zydeco at Home Team BBQ and Mark Meaux, accordian/fiddle and lead vocals, was in fine voice. Dancers flocked to the floor and cold Guinness was in my glass... but...something ... sounded different. Hard to pin it down. Something basic.

Oh yeah, the drums.

There were NO drums. At least, nothing I was used to seeing backing a band.

After the first set I chatted with Frank Kincel, the group's drummer.

"Hey," I said "where are the drums? The real ones?"

He answered that while he preferred to use acoustic drums, these were for touring - lighter, compact - and top of the line in the digital electronic drum domain.

It was pretty noisy there but he added he also laid down the bass line. Then I realized there was no bass player either but I had heard the familiar thump-thump-thump.

Apparently, Frank Beard, the original drummer for nearly 40 years with ZZ TOP, has not been sold on this new digital contribution to music. This is his tricked out double drum set I saw last week at the PAC.

I'm guessing they probably have a bigger touring budget. (Click on the photos for more detail.)

Interesting obsevation on the drums. I hadn't really noticed the different setup but I thought the sound was good and the bass line worked well. Mark Meaux and the pedal steel player were great and I hope they come back to Charleston soon. Hopefully with the large crowd that their high energy music deserves.